SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING HARDWARE VIRTUALIZATION IN A VIRTUAL MACHINE ENVIRONMENT

• US 20080034365A1
• Filed: 08/07/2007
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: BEA Systems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Dahlstedt, Joakim
• Granted Patent: US 8,250,572 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/505 considering the load

Abstract

A system and method for providing hardware virtualization and resource management in a virtual machine environment. In accordance with an embodiment, an application server environment includes a computer system, application server, and virtual machine (for example, a Java Virtual Machine or JVM). In accordance with an embodiment, a virtualization layer is provided at each physical machine, including a hypervisor for partitioning virtual machines over the machine. An execution layer runs a single Java-based application, focusing on running that application as efficiently as possible. In accordance with another embodiment, the system comprises two main components: a lower-level, execution environment that replaces the usual operating system; and a higher-level, resource broker that is responsible for handing out new virtual machines to the above layers, and for monitoring the current resource usage of the running virtual machines.

Claims

1. A system for providing hardware virtualization in a virtual machine environment, comprising:

a machine or computer, further comprising a virtualization layer, the virtualization layer including a hypervisor for partitioning virtual machines over the machine;

an execution layer adapted to run a single Java-based application; and

a Java Virtual Machine that runs on the execution layer, for use in running Java-based applications.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of machines and a virtualization layer located at each machine.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the execution layer is adapted to focus on running only the single Java-based application at a particular time, without being able to run any other applications.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the execution layer is adapted to run the single Java-based application as efficiently as possible.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of execution layers, each of which execution layer is adapted to run only a single Java-based application at a time, as efficiently as possible.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein each of the plurality of execution layers is adapted to focus on the single Java-based application, without being able to run any other applications.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein a plurality of execution layers are located on the same combination of hypervisor, virtualization layer, and machine.

8. A system for providing hardware virtualization in a virtual machine environment, comprising:

a machine including a virtualization layer, the virtualization layer including a hypervisor for partitioning virtual machines over the physical machine;

a plurality of Java Virtual Machines that run on the machine; and

a plurality of execution layers, including a separate execution layer for each of the plurality of Java Virtual Machines, wherein each of the execution layers provides for efficient operation of its own Java Virtual Machine, and a Java application running thereon.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein each of the execution layers provides for efficient operation of its own Java Virtual Machine, and of a single Java application running thereon, without being able to run any other applications.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein each execution layer is provided as an operating system (OS) that only handles, as a single process, the JVM process that runs the Java application.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the hypervisor allows memory to be shared between two or more virtualization layers, and the Java Virtual Machines running thereon.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the execution layer for each Java Virtual Machine informs the hypervisor layer of the presence of identical pages shared between different Java Virtual Machines.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the hypervisor allows the identical pages to be mapped to the same physical pages using copy-on-write.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the hypervisor is a Xen hypervisor.

15. The method of claim 8 wherein the hypervisor is a VMware hypervisor.

16. A system for providing hardware virtualization in a virtual machine environment, comprising:

one or a plurality of machines or computers, further comprising a plurality of virtual machines operating on the one or a plurality of machines;

a virtualization layer located at each machine, wherein the virtualization layer includes a hypervisor for partitioning virtual machines over that machine; and

a resource broker service that

receives a request from an application to access resources to be provided by a virtual machine,

determines which of the plurality of virtual machines is best suited to handling the request, and

communicates the request to the chosen virtual machine via the virtualization layer.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the system further comprises a plurality of resource broker agents that are responsible for communicating requests to the best suite virtual machine.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the virtualization layer and the resource broker service allocates requests according to predefined guarantees for the application making the request.

19. The system of claim 16 wherein the hypervisor is a Xen hypervisor.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein the hypervisor is a VMware hypervisor.

21. A system for providing hardware virtualization in a virtual machine environment, comprising:

a plurality of virtual machines operating on one or more physical machines or computers;

a virtualization layer at each machine, including a hypervisor and an execution layer for partitioning virtual machines over the physical machine; and

a resource broker service that receives a request from an application to access resources to be provided by a virtual machine, determines which of the plurality of virtual machines is best suited to handling the request, and communicates the request to the chosen virtual machine via the virtualization layer.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the system further comprises a plurality of resource broker agents including an agent that is responsible for communicating requests to the best suited virtual machine.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the virtualization layer and the resource broker service allocates requests according to predefined guarantees for the application making the request.

24. The system of claim 21 wherein the hypervisor is a Xen hypervisor.

25. The system of claim 21 wherein the hypervisor is a VMware hypervisor.

26. The system of claim 21 wherein the system further comprises a virtual machine proxy that allows an application to tunnel requests through the operating system at a first physical machine to the virtualization layer and a virtual machine at a second physical machine.

27. A method for providing hardware virtualization in a virtual machine environment, comprising the steps of:

providing a machine or computer, further comprising a virtualization layer, the virtualization layer including a hypervisor for partitioning virtual machines over the machine;

providing an execution layer adapted to run a single Java-based application; and

providing a Java Virtual Machine that runs on the execution layer, for use in running Java-based applications.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising providing a plurality of machines and a virtualization layer located at each machine.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein the execution layer is adapted to focus on running only the single Java-based application at a particular time, without being able to run any other applications.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the execution layer is adapted to run the single Java-based application as efficiently as possible.

31. A method for providing hardware virtualization in a virtual machine environment, comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from an application to access resources to be provided by a virtual machine;

determining which of a plurality of virtual machines or a plurality of physical machines or computers is best suited to handling the request;

communicating the request using a virtualization layer to create or manage virtual machines operating on the chosen physical machine or virtual machine, wherein the virtualization layer includes a execution layer and a hypervisor; and

processing the request at the chosen virtual machine.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the method further comprises providing a plurality of resource broker agents including an agent that is responsible for communicating requests to the best suited virtual machine.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein the virtualization layer and the resource broker service allocates requests according to predefined guarantees for the application making the request.

34. The method of claim 31 wherein the hypervisor is a Xen hypervisor.

35. The method of claim 31 wherein the hypervisor is a VMware hypervisor.